Transportation
by CarmenBlack212
Summary: Arthur wants to take an airplane to Egypt.
1. Making Plans

Arthur gleefully threw several leaflets scattering onto the wooden tabletop of the Burrow's kitchen. Molly looked of from her knitting needles to see her son Percy's somewhat disgusted face.

"Honestly, Father?"

It always bothered Arthur a little that Percy called him 'father' instead of 'dad'. But…whatever made him happy, Arthur supposed. Besides, at the moment he was too excited to be deterred by a little thing like that.

After winning all those galleons in prize money, the Weasleys were going to take an honest-to-Merlin vacation. Molly immediately made a plea for Egypt, a place she'd always wished to visit (and now had more reason to, as their eldest son Bill was a curse breaker there). Arthur had derived a brilliant idea while sitting at work and disabling a pair of fencing chopsticks.

The first leaflet Percy lifted off the table to show his mother was deep blue and emblazoned with a magnificent aircraft. The left wing dipping downwards, the picture depicted a plane in flight, soaring through perfectly blue skies, and the title read AER LINGUS.

"Oh, Arthur," Molly began, with a tone as though she were not sure how to say no.

"Isn't it fabulous, Molly?" Arthur chatted, pulling several more leaflets from his inside pocket. "Look, we can fly to Cairo on an _airplane_! Isn't that something? You know I've always wanted to! And look, if we just converted some of the galleons into pounds – Muggle money, you know – we could easily afford the trip! We could, Molly," he added, a look of desperate excitement and apprehension bright in his eyes.

Percy sighed and dropped the leaflet. "Shall I gather the family for a vote?"

Molly nodded, and as soon as Percy left, said soothingly, "Arthur, don't you think you're being a tad silly? We can just use magical transportation to get to Egypt. I hear those airplanes make people feel ill, and I certainly don't want anyone sick in the middle of the air."

"Molly, some Muggles get air sickness, but we've all ridden brooms! Besides, I hear that you forget you're even in the air! It's like a very large room with lots of comfortable seats and service, and it flies without magic! It's brilliant, dear, look!"

Arthur snatched up one of his leaflets, opened it up, and tossed it onto Molly's needlework. Molly looked at it briefly and saw friendly-looking staff waiting on happy passengers.

"There's even a television!" Arthur added, pointing to the picture. "Or is it called a velitision?"

"I don't know, Arthur."

Noise from above signaled the Weasleys were gathering from all over the house. Ginny was the first one into the room.

"Don't know what, Mum?" she asked, sitting on the couch.

"We'll wait for your brothers," Molly said, while Arthur debated silently over which was the correct Muggle term.

Fred and George entered the room, looking distinctly shifty and smelling of sulfur. Percy followed, nose wrinkled and wearing an expression of blatant disgust.

"Prince Perce here fetched us from some very important _homework_," George said.

"So we hope this is an important family meeting," Fred said.

"Where's Ron?" Ginny asked.

"Here," Ron supplied, entering the kitchen door, tracking mud. Molly magicked the muck away after him from her armchair. "What's all this about, then?"

"Well, your father…," Molly began.

"I've had a brilliant idea," Arthur cut in. The children shared looks of exasperation.

"Dad, will this be anything like the time you nearly broke the code of secrecy when that guy came to install the telephone?" Fred asked.

"Or when you completely exploded the garage by attempting to create a more efficient petrol?" George continued.

"Remember the time with the leaking collection of batteries?" Ginny asked the group at large.

Percy groaned. "That was right below my bedroom, too."

"Now, now, that's enough," Molly said, though she seemed to agree with her children's skepticism. "Let your father speak."

"As you all know, the plan is to go to Egypt next month. At work, I came up with an idea of how to get there. Now, this is something I've always wanted to do, and it means quite a bit to me, so I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't come down on it hard."

"Here it comes," muttered Ron.

"We should fly."

The Weasley children, minus Percy, look relieved. Molly began knitting again, and Percy cleared his throat, but the other kids looked at each other.

"That's it?" Fred asked.

"Cool with me," Ron said, rising from his seat.

"So what's all the excitement about?" George grumbled. "We were busy."

"Mum? Perce? You don't look please," Ginny observed.

"He wants to fly on an airplane," Percy said quietly, and Arthur began bouncing on the balls of his feet.

"An airplane?" Ron said.

"Oh, you all know I'm fascinated, and I think it'd be a great experience, especially for you two," Arthur added, nodding to the twins. "I imagine Professor Burbage would be thrilled to get a real life account of a plane ride!"

The twins rolled their eyes.

"So we're taking a Weasley vote?" Ron asked.

"That's why you're here," Arthur said. "Please keep in mind how much I'd love to do this…" He looked at them all with pleading eyes. "All in favour?"

He raised his hand and looked anxiously around. Molly halfheartedly raised one of her knitting needles, and Ginny, with a look of pity at her father and glances at her brothers, raised her hand. The rest sat with arms down.

"Oh, come on, now, only one more of you and we'll go!" Arthur pleaded.

"You vote yea, Percy, and we'll use you as a homework prop," Fred murmured, so his parents did not hear. "And as for you, Ron… Stuffed animals aren't the only thing we can turn to spiders. Think pillows."

Ron shuddered. George, however, looked at Fred oddly. Fred stared back. They seemed to be having a silent conversation, and Fred looked near murderous. But George looked at his father, and upon seeing the longing in Arthur's blue eyes, said aloud, "Sorry, bro, but you can't use me in our experiments and I'm no arachnophobic."

George Weasley raised a hand, and Arthur actually whooped with glee.


	2. Before the Flight

"I somehow feel betrayed," Fred muttered darkly to George.

"I was just being a good son. Unlike you sods," George added.

"Don't dally in the middle of the walkway!" Percy snapped, pushing past the twins with his new (second-hand) suitcase in hand.

Fred and George made identical hand gestures at Percy's back, which earned them each a sharp smack in the head from their mother.

Molly was dragging her own suitcase. She looked ahead to where Percy was making his way through the crowds, searching out her husband and daughter.

"There they are," she sighed. She, the twins, and Percy headed toward the two red heads standing near one of the airplane terminals.

"Isn't is exciting?" Arthur asked his family as soon as they were close enough. He was giddy with excitement and kept starting and pointing out the window to the incoming flights.

"Of course," Molly said placidly. She was looking around, and suddenly stiffened. "Where's Ron?"

The rest of the Weasleys looked around, but Ron was no where to be seen.

"Oh, dear," Mr. Weasley said quietly.

"Ron!" Molly called. "Ron!"

"Mum, shut up," Ginny hissed. "Don't do that in a public place!"

Molly left her bag and hurried out into the walkway again. "Ron!"

Percy decidedly took charge. "I'll go an inform an authority," he said importantly.

"Percy, don't embarrass the man," George scolded.

"Yeah, d'you think Ron wants to hear himself being paged all over the airport?" Fred asked.

"'Ronald Weasley? Ronald Bilius Weasley, your mummy's looking for you!'" George snorted. "Maybe we should page him."

"Arthur!" Molly shouted. "Arthur, I found him!"

And there was Ron, pushing himself between a pair of girls chatting away in French. In one hand, he carried his luggage, and in the other, a small cage containing his rat.

"I'm here," he said testily as Molly placed her arm around him, steering him to the rest of the family. "I got cut off by a group of senior citizens."

"Well, it's fine now," Arthur said, pointing. "Look, our flight is boarding!"

Sure enough, they were called to present their tickets and passports and load onto the airplane. The Weasleys were very successful, until it came to the loading part.

"Arthur, move," Molly whispered.

But Arthur wouldn't budge.

"Dad!"

"Dad, come on!"

"What the bloody hell?"

"Language, Ron."

"Shut up, Percy."

"Arthur, please go."

But Arthur was hypnotized by what he could see of the cockpit. He went as far as to reach out toward it, but Ron 'accidentally' hit him in the back with Scabbers' cage, sending him forward into the seating area.

The plane did not have seats open for seven people to be seated together, so the family was separated. Arthur and Molly sat on either side of Ginny (with Arthur at the window), and Ron was seated behind them with a business man to his right and the aisle on his left. This left Fred, George, and Percy to grab their seats at the back of the plane, sitting next to the toilet and directly behind an old woman, a young lady, and a small girl.

Percy was extremely disgruntled to be sitting in the back with the twins, but he kept his lips pursed rather than appealing to Ron to switch. The twins glanced at each other with mischievous looks in their eyes as Percy sat near the window, staring out at the other airplanes.

"Look, Molly! Look at the airplane! It's _landing_! There are wheels on it, do you see So that it can -- !"

"Arthur, sh!" Molly said, placing a calming hand on her husband's arm while Ginny sunk low in her seat. "The entire plane can hear you!"

"Sorry, Molly," Arthur said quietly, the very tips of his ears blushing.

"So when do we actually get going?" Ron asked over the seats. "It better not take too long; I wanted to catch the match on the radio in two hours."

"Two hours?" Arthur blinked. "Ron, what do you think this plane does, vanishes and reappears in Egypt in a few seconds?"

"You say that like it's so hard to believe," Ron pointed out.

Molly put her finger to her lips and nodded to the Muggle man sitting beside Ron.

"We'll be in the air for a good few hours," she said, not sounding to thrilled about it herself.

"I'm going to miss the Cannons?" Ron asked, outraged.

"Here, Ron, I'll play out the game for you," Ginny said. "As the Magpies score their twentieth score, they break the record for most goals made in the first three minutes of a match! And it appears that Gudgeon has seen – oops, no, he's crashed right into the stadium wall! And the Magpies win, 350 to 0!"

"Shut up. Only reason you aren't sore is your team isn't playing."

As Ginny continued to patronize Ron, the twins were busy. They had managed a few Filibusters each and were now wondering how to light them under the seats of the passengers in front of them. The smell of singed fabric drew Percy's attention, who opened his mouth to reprimand the twins for whatever they were doing now, but was cut off by Arthur Weasley's exclamation of glee as the engine audible started and the plane began scooting forward.


End file.
